PublishAmerica Get Caught Lying about Get Caught Reading

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PublishAmerica may not be caught reading, but they have been caught lying! PublishAmerica has duped authors into handing over their essays for the "Why We Wrote" books with donations supposedly going to Get Caught Reading for every book sold. Not true!

PublishAmerica: Get Caught Up in Reading Hasn't heard From them !

As part of our undercover investigation into numerous author's complaints regarding PublishAmerica, we examined the latest "Why We Wrote", anthology, a four volume set. Over the years, email boxes have been flooded with solicitations to purchase copies of our own books. There have been "donations" to Tom Hanks, Stephen King, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Wal-Mart, Barnes and Noble, unnamed military personnel, the Haiti disaster relief fund, the Get Caught up reading literacy program, the ASPCA (for which they would call the news media over a $2 donation), the field trip to the PublishAmerica office " It is the thrill of a lifetime" would cost authors 19 copies.Of course in order to qualify for any of these "donations" you must purchase copies of your own book.

Retail stores are not charities by any stretch of the imagination. As for the bone-fide charities, why didn't publishAmerica just go ahead and make a donation to the literacy fund, to Haiti or to the military? Why indeed, that wouldn't equate to more book sales for PublishAmerica.The Get Caught Reading campaign of the Association of American Publishers included adding your work to an anthology titled "Why We Wrote," that founder Willem Meiners authored the introduction to about what inspired you to become an author. PublishAmerica authors were invited to purchase an E-file of the introduction at .99 for inspiration. That link was found here but has since been removed.

Authors were told not to expect any compensation for their work.

"By submitting your essay you irrevokably {sic} authorize PublishAmerica, LLLP, at its sole discretion, to include it in the book "Why We Wrote" without compensation for you in any manner at any time, and to include it in any and all promotional activities and/or publications in any form or format that benefit the book and/or literacy advocacy and/or PublishAmerica who reserve the right to refuse or edit for spelling, grammar, or size."

We wondered why authors were not receiving any type of payment and this does tell you that this company targets those who they feel are satisfied with merely seeing their name in print. PublishAmerica justified not paying the 1,000 authors who offered use of their work believing that this Why We Wrote set, was being used to generate money for charity."

For each sold copy of Why We Wrote a donation will be made to the Get Caught Reading campaign of the Association of American Publishers, of which PublishAmerica is a long-standing member. "

Our investigative team responded by asking PublishAmerica exactly how much of a donation were they making to the literacy campaign. By the way, it is a charitable tax deduction for PublishAmerica so in the grand scheme of things, PublishAmerica is earning 100% profit from these "donation" sales incentives.This was their response:"

Thank you for your email. Please be advised that we do not provide the donation information."

We responded by saying

" You should provide the donation information. The authors who are making these purchases and lending their work are going to want to know exactly how much of the money is going to this fund. Considering they are involved in the project, it is their legal right to know."

We received no further response about the matter.Furthering our investigation, we contacted Ms. Tina Jordan, Vice President of the Association of American Publishers to verify whether or not PublishAmerica has in fact made any charitable donations per every book sold, as they told these authors there would be.

Ms. Jordan had this to say,"Publish America has not donated to Get Caught Reading and we have not heard from them."

Nonetheless, the entire four volume set of "Why We Wrote" is now for sale on the PublishAmerica website for $39.95 plus shipping or $24.95 per copy plus shipping. "

Product Description All 4 volumes for only $39.95!

This is the world's first representative survey of what makes Main Street writers tick. As in: really tick.

A thousand authors answered four simple questions:
*Why did you write?
*How did it change your life?
*How did it change the life of others?
*What about people who can't read?

In four volumes of this book, regular folks who over the years joined almost fifty thousand other PublishAmerica writers to become a published author, open a thousand windows into their minds and hearts.Together they issue a uniquely inspiring message of dreams, drive, and determination.Over the span of only one decade, PublishAmerica's authors have touched a million lives, and then some.

They are the ABC's most effective advocates. What they're saying is that America's Main Street readers and writers can, and do, change a world.Willem Meiners, co-founder of PublishAmerica."

Conspicuously missing from this webpage is a mention, even as sales incentive, that any portion of the sale will be donated to a charity.

UPDATE: additional information to report. The question was asked to Ms. Jordan

"Thank you so much for your reply. At any time has this publisher contacted you about this project stating that they had any intention of making such donation? "

To which she responded: "No they did not."